Weddell Seal Science

Team 2024 Photo/Video Finale!

Special Report From Parker Levinson With Our 2024 Field Team Photo/Video Finale:

As the 2024 season comes to an end, each of us chose our favorite field photo or video snapshot to share with you. It turns out that our favorite images do a great job showing how the pups grow up and how our field work changes. We start out the season tagging all the pups when the pups are still small and the mothers are spending a lot of time with them. Pups begin to swim with their mom about a week after they are born, but it takes them weeks to gain the physiological capacity to be good divers. As the season progresses, moms may spend time away from their pups. Because Weddells have no natural land predators, the pups often hang out and sleep on the ice while their mothers are swimming. Eventually, the pups get very big and shed (i.e. molt) their baby fur, replacing it with darker and coarser adult fur. At this point in the season, we have already tagged all the pups in the study area and have walked up to every adult seal to record its tag numbers and retag it if needed. Although our field season is only two months long, the pups grow up so much in that time period, and we are fortunate to witness their growth and development. 

Parker Levinson:  I really enjoyed watching this mom and pup in a swim hole; it seemed like it was one of the first times in the water for this pup as it stayed at the surface for most of the time in the water. I feel like this photo captures how curious the seals are, but I also love the slightly overwhelmed look that the pup has, as if the swimming lesson was a little too much for that day. 

Allie Chipman: I love this silly video of a pup. No matter the weather, they make sure to get a drool worthy nap in.

Sophia Rotella: My favorite photo that I took this season was of this molted pup showing off one of my favorite poses that they do. They stick their heads straight up to look at things behind them. I love their big dark eyes and long whiskers.

Elisabeth Krieger: Parker took this photo towards the end of the season. It shows what a lot of our work looks like during that period - we spent a lot of time in colonies checking that the seals have all of their tags. I also love that this photo shows off the gorgeous Antarctic landscape! 

Abram Brown: I love when the mothers place a flipper over their pup. I feel that it really displays the maternal instincts of each mom and their desire to protect their pups. I especially like this photo because the pup has one of their own flippers tucked underneath them and it makes it look like mom is giving them a hug. The mom with her mouth open also adds a little bit of personality as it looks like she is scolding the pup.

 

Prof. Jay Rotella: I chose this photo because it shows the strong bond between mothers and their pups that occurs during the time we are working with the seals and that is at the core of much of our work.

- Parker Levinson (she/her)
Project PhD student and 2024 Field Team Leader

Pester Pup! A New Short Film by Jeremy Schmidt!

Project multimedia specialist and "Weddell Seals" eBook author Jeremy Schmidt gets us up close and personal with a lively young Weddell seal pup and its talkative mom in this amazing short video. We hope you enjoy this unusual footage of Weddell seal mom and pup interaction!

2024 Field Season Recap with Parker Levinson and Prof. Jay Rotella!

Soon the 2024 Field Team will be on their way off the Ice after a successful and fascinating Weddell seal pupping season. In this 2024 Field Season Recap, PhD student Parker Levinson and lead scientist Prof. Jay Rotella share some of the highlights of the pupping season, describe several unusual sightings, and report on the Weddell seal population this year in the Erebus Bay, Antarctica study area. Hope you enjoy this longer video recap!

- Mary Lynn Price

Profile: Interview with 2024 Field Team Researcher Sophia Rotella!

Our 4th in a Series of Profiles of B-009 Team 2024 Field Researchers:

2024 Field Team member Sophia Rotella is interviewed by Lead Scientist Prof. Jay Rotella in this new project video produced on location in the Weddell Seal Population Study Area of Erebus Bay, Antarctica!

Sophia recounts her surprise at how readily she has adapted to working on the Ice, and what she enjoys most about doing field research on this population of amazing marine mammals. Long-time Project Instagram Specialist, Sophia has curated numerous viral Weddell Seal Science videos on the popular Instagram page that she launched well over a decade ago, and continues to produce and curate today.

She noted in a previous field blog post:

Hello! My name is Sophia (she/her). I’m from Bozeman, Montana, and it is my first year of deployment to Antarctica. My degree is in psychology and human development, but I grew up helping out with various wildlife projects and was also involved heavily with working around horses. I have a range of skills from caretaking positions for both people and animals, and research analysis. I’m most excited to be out in the field around the seals. I predict that we will tag around 600 pups this year. If I could possess an animal adaptation, it would be the ability to fly like a falcon.

- Mary Lynn Price

Weddell Seal Behavior Underwater in Erebus Bay, Antarctica!

A rarely filmed underwater Weddell seal behavior is presented in this short video filmed using an unobtrusive polecam in Erebus Bay, Antarctica toward the end of the Weddell seal pupping season in the late Austral Spring. The under-ice plankton is beginning to bloom, many Weddell seal moms are still nursing their pups, and Weddell seal males are patrolling as they establish their underwater territories for the breeding season ahead. The Weddell mom with her pup in this video responds to an unwanted intruder as she effectively protects her growing young one. The underwater video was filmed by 2024 Field Team Member Abram Brown, including the underwater sound recorded on the Insta360 X4 camera during the filming. The topside footage of the same behavior was filmed by 2024 Field Team Member Sophia Rotella. More info on the Weddell Seal Population Study at WeddellSeallScience.com.

- Mary Lynn Price

NSF and USAP Science Support Makes Our Weddell Seal Science Work Possible!

Special Report From Prof. Jay Rotella:

For us to be able to conduct our field project, many people from a wide variety of job descriptions in the U.S., in New Zealand, and at McMurdo Station provide critical support. Each year during springtime, or about 5-6 months before our field project begins, we work with members of The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and contractors for the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) to agree on what support we’ll need and can expect for the October-December field season.

It takes a network of support to be able to accomplish our science work on the sea ice of
Erebus Bay, Antarctica. McMurdo Science Implementer Randall "Randy" Jones is one of
the many people who play a major role, as described in this new video interview.

Over the summer, each person on our team works with the support team, their personal doctor and dentist, as well as members of the University of Texas Medical Branch to be declared Physically Qualified (PQ) for deployment. Early in the summer, new and repaired field gear that needs to be shipped to Antarctica must be packaged and sent off, so that it can arrive in New Zealand and be air lifted to Antarctica in time for our field work in October. Travel staff from the Antarctic Support Contract team arrange for our tickets from the U.S. to New Zealand.

Staff at the United States Antarctic Program’s Clothing Distribution Center in Christchurch, New Zealand prepare duffel bags that contain crucial cold weather clothing so that the items are ready for us when we arrive in New Zealand. Members of various military branches arrange and conduct flights from New Zealand to McMurdo. At McMurdo, personnel prepare sea-ice runways, manage fuel, and handle the arrival and departure of various aircraft.

At McMurdo Station, various members of the United States Antarctic Program organize and check a wide variety of key items that we use during the field season such as snowmobiles, field gear, fuel, and food. Throughout the field season, we rely on many people from more than a dozen work centers. For example, we rely on snowmobile mechanics to maintain and repair our snowmobiles; carpenters to put out emergency shelters; members of the Field Safety & Training team to provide our team with safety trainings, monitor sea ice conditions, and flag safe routes on the sea ice to a variety of key locations in our study area; members of Fuels and Fleet Operations to have snowmobile fuel available and maintain local travel routes; staff at the Berg Field Center to provide us with key gear such as backpacks, water bottles, ice axes, carabiners, etc.; the Central Communications to manage our daily check-in/check-out procedures for our field work; Helicopter Operations to schedule and conduct reconnaissance flights and travel to/from several sites that we access by air; and Crary Science Building staff to manage a wide variety of items including chemical supplies and our office and lab spaces.

We also rely on many others here at McMurdo for housing, food, and many other aspects of daily life. At the heart of it all is our science implementer - Randall (Randy) Jones, a Leidos employee -  who helps coordinate all the support we need, from the pre-planning in April to our redeployment flight from McMurdo back to New Zealand and everything in between. We truly appreciate all who make our project possible!

- Prof. Jay Rotella, Lead Scientist
Erebus Bay Weddell Seal Population Study

Antarctica Fat Seal Pup Week A Huge Success!

Special Report From Prof. Jay Rotella:

Thanks to the clever thinking and incredible graphic design skills of Liz Widen, an Instrument Technician at McMurdo Station who works with many science teams in the Crary Science Building, our research team has started running a science-based outreach event called “Fat Pup Week”.

Crary Lab Instrument Tech Liz Widen and Project PhD Student Parker Levinson
describe the 2024 Fat Seal Pup project on McMurdo Station, with participation
this year including US South Pole and Palmer Stations, and New Zealand Scott Base!

The contest is loosely modeled after “Fat Bear Week”, where the public votes for “the fattest, most successful Katmai bear" (https://katmaiconservancy.org). The Weddell seal team selected 16 Weddell seal pups from different pupping colonies and chose pups that were noticeably large and heavy, characteristics that we predict enhance a pup’s chances of surviving to adulthood. Liz then presented all the information in an organized and digestible way for folks at McMurdo to make informed decisions on which is the fattest pup in Erebus Bay.

People at McMurdo Station were asked to submit names for the pups, and the 16 pups were then put in a bracket involving 15 head-to-head matches to determine the overall winner. Some of the names included “Rolli Cannoli”, “Blob the Builder”, “Puptimus Prime”, “Galumphing Gulper”, “Meatball”, and “Pupperoni”. A printed version of the bracket was hung just outside the McMurdo cafeteria/galley where members of the community could see photos and bios for each of the seal pups and learn of their colony location, age of their mother, and other interesting/fun facts about the pups and the seals in general. For each head-to-head matchup, the McMurdo community’s members, who do so much to support our project, voted for the winner on tally sheets hung next to the bracket. Just like in the NCAA basketball tournaments held each spring, Fat Pup Week winners of each round move on in a single-elimination format. The event has garnered a lot of attention from the community and it's common to see clusters of people gathered around the Fat Pup Week billboard having lively discussions of the names, the pictures, and their favored contestants. With one contest per day, Fat Pup Week actually extends over approximately weeks and ends with a winner being crowned during the Thanksgiving holiday celebration.

Hundreds of people from McMurdo Station participated: about 1/3 of the people currently on Station voted. It’s been a fun way to engage people in our project and has led to lots of great questions and exchanges between our team’s members and other community members. Fat Pup Week has expanded as interest has grown, and community members of South Pole Station and New Zealand’s Scott Base Station are also now voting for contest winners. This year, the project’s Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/weddellsealscience/), which is run by team member Sophia Rotella, has made it possible for friends and family of members of the United States Antarctic Program to participate by voting online. Many of the 100,000 followers of the project’s Instagram page have also enjoyed participating in the voting. We’re really excited by how many people have engaged with our project’s science through this outreach effort. We also really appreciate the time that Liz Widen and the members of our team have put into collecting photos of the pups, organizing the bracket, and getting the bracket and voting sheets up and monitored. 

- Prof. Jay Rotella